Phishing For Your Treasure:

Protecting yourself from phishing scams

This project is a gamified, scenario-based, eLearning module designed and developed to help learners recognize and respond to phishing scams through a fun, pirate-themed adventure. Players explore islands, investigate suspicious messages, and face a final boss using the skills they’ve learned to protect their digital treasure.

  • Audience: Employees and staff across educational, corporate, and nonprofit settings who need foundational training in cybersecurity awareness and phishing prevention.

  • Responsibilities: Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Gamification, Visual Design, Storyboarding, Scriptwriting, Authoring

  • Tools Used: Articulate Storyline 360, Vyond, Google Docs, Google Slides, Affinity Designer 2, Mindmeister, Procreate, ChatGPT

Overview

Modern professionals face a constant wave of phishing threats disguised as everyday emails—many of which can be surprisingly convincing. Without the right instincts or training, even tech-savvy users can fall for scams that compromise personal data and workplace security.

To address this, I designed a gamified, scenario-based eLearning experience that immerses learners in a pirate-themed adventure to outsmart phishing attempts. By navigating to islands and battling a final boss, users practice identifying red flags in realistic email scenarios. Through interactive decision-making, immediate feedback, and visual storytelling, learners build practical skills and confidence to recognize and respond to phishing scams before it’s too late.

Process

Developing this gamified, scenario-based eLearning experience was an iterative and creative process that blended storytelling, instructional design, and interactivity. I followed these steps to bring the adventure to life:

  • Conducted Research & Defined Learning Goals – Identified key phishing red flags and behavior-change outcomes to anchor the learning experience in practical, real-world relevance.

  • Created the Action Map – Used MindMeister to outline critical decision points and interactions aligned with the goal: helping learners detect phishing attempts and respond safely. I also used ChatGPT to help brainstorm scenario ideas and refine my action map to be more focused.

  • Wrote the Script & Storyboard – Drafted narrative sequences, dialogue, and interactive moments using Google Docs and Google Slides, shaping a cohesive and engaging short story arc. ChatGPT assisted with initial brainstorming for narrative dialogue and was a helpful tool for rewording overly long or unclear prompts.

  • Designed Visual Mockups – Developed custom assets and mockups in Vyond, Procreate and Affinity Designer 2, creating a cohesive visual style with One Piece-inspired pirate themes.

  • Built the Interactive Prototype – Used Google Slides to test navigation, branching, and interaction logic before full development.

  • Developed the Final Product – Animated the final learning experience in Vyond, then assembled in Articulate Storyline 360, combining visual storytelling with meaningful interaction to reinforce phishing detection skills.

Each step blended design thinking and creative problem-solving to ensure the final product was both immersive and instructionally effective.

Action Map

Before writing anything, I created an action map to clarify the project’s core purpose: help learners recognize and avoid phishing emails. Using MindMeister, I identified the end goal—spotting phishing attempts with confidence—and worked backward to pinpoint the key decisions learners would need to make.

This process helped me distinguish between "nice-to-know" information and actions that truly supported the goal. I organized learner tasks into three key scenarios: suspicious subject lines, questionable links/attachments, and misleading sender info. Each scenario featured a decision point that mimicked real-world email interactions.

Action mapping ensured the training remained concise, behavior-focused, and aligned with real learner needs. It also gave me a strong foundation for designing interactions that felt purposeful and rewarding—especially within a gamified environment.

Text-Based Storyboard

After action mapping, I developed a detailed text-based storyboard in Google Docs to lay out the entire learner experience. This included slide-by-slide content such as titles, narrative prompts, learner choices, consequences, visual/audio notes, and programming logic.

The storyboard followed a pirate adventure theme to keep users engaged while teaching important cybersecurity skills. Each decision point gave learners multiple choices reflecting common phishing mistakes.

To reinforce learning, I incorporated feedback, a treasure meter were users would lose gold coins for wrong answers, and an observation meter that would increase after spotting red flags. I also outlined a final boss scenario to challenge learners on everything they had practiced.

This step was crucial for aligning narrative, interactivity, and instructional goals. It allowed me to catch gaps in logic, ensure clarity, and build momentum for the visual and technical development that followed.

Visual Mockups

Once the learning flow was solidified, I created visual mockups using Google Slides and Procreate to define the overall look and feel of the course. Since this was a gamified experience, I focused on crafting a playful design that immersed learners in a pirate world while maintaining clarity and accessibility.

I created custom UI elements like a treasure meter and enemy health meter. Typography was chosen for readability and theme consistency.

Mockups included every key screen—scenario setups, email examples, response options, feedback interactions, and final results. Creating these visuals early made it easier to test layout effectiveness, make quick design decisions, and ensure the final experience felt cohesive and polished.

Interactive Prototype

Before building the full experience in Storyline, I developed a functional prototype using Google Slides to simulate interactions and flow. This clickable prototype allowed me to validate user navigation, branching logic, and overall learner engagement.

I then recreated the prototype in Articulate Storyline, where I introduced key features like triggers, variables, and states. I programmed a scoring system that tracked “haki” and “treasure” through each scenario, showing learners the impact of their decisions in real time. I also implemented a first mate character who appeared after incorrect and correct answers to offer tips.

Full Development

With the prototype validated, I built the full eLearning module in Articulate Storyline 360. The final experience included four email scenarios followed by a challenging final boss where learners had to apply everything they learned.

Each email challenge required learners to examine a pirate-themed email message and either decide on an action or pinpoint red flags. Wrong choices triggered treasure loss, and correct ones earned observation skill. The final boss tested learners on all red flags across multiple emails.

I designed layered feedback for each choice, maintained scoring with variables, and added visual effects to enhance immersion. I also refined animations and accessibility features to ensure the experience was usable and engaging for all learners.

Brief feedback was integrated at the end of each section and again during the final boss battle, reinforcing the learning objectives.

Results and Takeaways

This interactive scenario was a personal project created to explore gamified learning and practice instructional design techniques in a fun, creative way. Along the way, I used ChatGPT to reduce development time by helping me brainstorm ideas, edit content, and polish phrasing—especially during the planning and scripting phases. Although it wasn't shared with peers or used in a formal setting, it served as a valuable opportunity to apply and deepen my skills in scenario design, visual storytelling, and eLearning development.

Through the process, I gained more experience using tools like Articulate Storyline, Vyond, and Affinity Designer. I challenged myself to balance playful engagement—like health meters and boss battles—with clear instructional goals and meaningful feedback.

Building this project from the ground up reinforced my ability to:

  • Design interactive decision-based learning paths

  • Use variables and branching to personalize learner experience

  • Develop creative visuals that align with instructional purpose

  • Combine gamification with real-world learning outcomes

If I were to expand the project further, I would love to:

  • Add more scenarios to increase challenge and replayability

  • Introduce more animated scenes and better background music for immersion

  • Build a character selection feature for learner personalization

  • Creating additional mini-games or bonus treasure hunts

This project was a reminder of how powerful learning can be when it’s both meaningful and fun. It also reinforced my passion for building creative instructional experiences that spark curiosity and encourage skill-building—even when created just for the joy of it.